Pica mourerae
| Pica mourerae | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Piacenzium to Gelasium | ||||||||||||
| 2.588 million years | ||||||||||||
| Locations | ||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Pica mourerae | ||||||||||||
| Seguí , 2001 |
Pica mourerae is an extinct species of corvidae (Corvidae). The bird was a representative of the real magpies ( Pica ) and lived around 2.6 million years ago on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca . In size, the species corresponded to the magpie ( Pica pica ), but had longer legs and shorter wings. It probably lived more terrestrially than the species of its genus that remain today. The first fossils of the species were found in the 1970s. In 2001 Bartomeu Seguí described it as a separate species and placed it in the genus Pica .
features
Pica mourerae was a medium-sized raven bird . Her tarsometatarsus measured 48–52 mm, her humerus 40–41 mm. The ratio of wing and leg bones to one another was significantly smaller than in today's European corvids; so it had longer legs and shorter wings than the magpie ( pica pica ). Otherwise, both birds were roughly the same size.
Locations and time horizon
Fossils of Pica mourerae have so far only been found in the Pedrera de s'Ònix cave in the east of Mallorca . The corresponding layer is dated to the change from the Plio to the Pleistocene or to the early Pleistocene, so it is around 2.6 million years old. A fragment of a raven bird humerus comes from the Cova de Son Bauçà and is dated to the middle Pleistocene. It would broaden the time horizon of Pica mourerae , but its condition does not allow a definite assignment to a certain species. Pica mourerae is the only species of real magpies that has been found on Mallorca so far .
Way of life
The shortening of wing bones and the elongation of the running apparatus can be observed in many island endings . It usually represents an adaptation to a spatially very limited habitat or an environment largely free of predators . In Pica mourerae, however, it probably did not lead to a loss of flight ability.
Systematics
The known fossils of Pica mourerae were found in various excavations in the 1970s. They were initially ascribed to the magpie before Bartomeu Seguí put them in a separate species in 2001. As a reason, he cited the different proportions and several fine features of the bones, which differed significantly from those of the magpie. He chose “ mourerae ” as a specific epithet to honor the achievements of the paleontologist Cécile Mourer-Chauvirés . Mourer-Chauviré originally discovered the fossils of Pica mourerae and made a decisive contribution to the study of the Plio-Pleistocene bird life in the Balearic Islands .
swell
literature
- Bartomeu Seguí: A new species of Pica (Aves: Corvidae) from the Plio-Pleistocene of Mallorca, Balearic Islands (Western Mediterranean) . In: Geobios 34 (3), 2001. pp. 339-347.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Seguí 2011 , pp. 341–344.
- ↑ Seguí 2011 , pp. 340–346.
- ↑ Seguí 2011 , p. 344.
- ↑ Seguí 2011 , pp. 340-345.